


Where Troubles Melt Like Lemon Drops

by haloisbent



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-29
Updated: 2013-09-29
Packaged: 2017-12-28 00:25:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/985433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haloisbent/pseuds/haloisbent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After breaking his arm in 1x20, Steve gets suckered into letting Grace decorate his cast. (Steve/Danny if you want to see it, Gen friendship if you don't!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where Troubles Melt Like Lemon Drops

Steve McGarrett was no stranger to broken bones. Or cuts, or bruises, or casts for that matter. What was an alien territory for him was having his cast turn into a full on art project. 

"Don't say I didn't warn you." Danny piped up from the couch on the other side of the room. He was nursing a beer and kept his eyes on the scores scrolling across the ticker at the bottom of the screen. 

"I couldn't tell her no." Steve said, sitting on the floor with his legs stretched out under the coffee table. He was instructed to sit and stay until Grace came back. 

"You didn't have to tell her no, but I believe your exact words were, 'go nuts' on it. Now she's gonna drag out all her stickers, markers, paint-" Danny turned his gaze to Steve so he could absorb the reaction to this one with sick pleasure, "and the glitter."

The reaction was everything Danny hoped for and more. Steve's face jerked to look at Danny and his mouth formed an O as he shook his head. Danny chuckled and nodded. "Oh yeah babe, you've gotten yourself so deep in the unicorn's ass you're gonna be waking up with glitter in your eye boogers. I can't wait. I'm just glad it's not me. Lord knows I've had my share of disco ball mornings." Danny went back to his scores as he took a long pull from his beer. 

Steve was about to get up from his position and make a run for the door when Grace returned, sticker covered box of supplies in hand and a smile spread across her face. Until she saw Steve poised to get up. "What are you doing, Steve? You can't leave!" 

Steve's sighed and sat back down. "I'm not going anywhere." He laid his cast out on the table in a gesture of surrender.

Grace smiled again and Steve hated that he was turning into a sap for this kid. He was never a kid kinda guy, but watching Danny with his daughter made Steve feel like he'd been missing something. Even watching Danny as he watched Grace spread out her multicolored tools of Steve's doom, it was hard to keep the warm feeling from flooding his senses. There was never anything but fondness and love from Danny when it came to Grace. It made a part of Steve ache for the relationship he should have had with his own father. 

Steve hadn't realized how deep in his own head he was until he was pulled back by the sensation of Grace's breath being blown cool against his hand. She was drying some glitter paint near the edge of the cast by his thumb. He didn't pay attention to what was being painted or exactly how much of his once white cast was now brilliantly colored with glitter. Instead, he stole a glance of Danny. Instead of the fond, soft features that usually painted his partner's face when his daughter was involved, Steve was met with a distracted father. One who was also in his own head. Steve sat staring at Danny until Grace let out a happy laugh at her own handy work. Danny's eyes pulled back into focus and met Steve's. 

"I'm almost done!" Grace grinned, but both men couldn't look away from each other. 

"Hey Monkey?" Danny finally shook his vision from Steve and looked to his daughter. "Why don't you go get all of us some ice cream? All the trimmings, huh?" He looked to Steve for back up.

"Yeah, I'd like the works Gracie. Even a cherry on top." Steve's eyes never left his partner. Grace peeled out for the kitchen, eyes bright with determination and giddiness. Steve watched as Danny got up and walked over to the coffee table, sitting down on the floor to Steve's side without the cast. 

"It's one thing, you know, to watch you be stupid on the job." Danny started, his eyes still on the television without absorbing any of the information it held. "But yesterday, that-" 

"Yesterday was an accident." Steve started to defend, but Danny's hand went up to silence him. 

"I know. I mean, you didn't know there'd be a dead body out there and you didn't know that rock was gonna slip." Danny ran his hand back through his hair. "Your death wish has become a constant in our relationship. It's you, me, the car and your giant fucking death wish. I get that. But at least I could blame that on you. Yesterday, I can't blame that-" Danny pulled his bottom lip between his thumb and index finger, pinching it with thought.

"I'm sorry." Steve turned towards Danny. 

"God, don't say that. Don't take the blame when I just told you I can't blame it on you. Take the blame the five times a week you have me honest to God terrified that I'm never going to see my kid's face again. Say you’re sorry when you get me shot or when you send our car like a rocket through barriers. This time, Steven, this time shut up." 

Danny's face turned towards the kitchen, where Grace slammed a cabinet and loudly apologized before her dad could react. "Do me a favor-" Danny turned to look Steve in the face, "get yourself killed on the job because I can't handle this accidental shit." Danny's eyes were tired.

Steve worried the inside of his cheek between his teeth and nodded. "Okay." He promised. 

"Ice cream!" Grace came out of the kitchen with a giant bowl, which looked to be mostly toppings. She set it in front of Steve. "I gave you two cherries, because Danno always gives me two when I'm sick or get hurt. Don't you?" She looked to Danny, who was standing. 

"I do." He said, the fondness for his little girl written across his face again. "Sit down and finish your masterpiece. I'll go get the other bowls." He disappeared into the kitchen as Grace sat down to put the final touches on Steve's cast. Danny set Grace's ice cream on the coffee table and then took the spot on the floor beside her. "That looks fantastic." He told her with a grin. "Who knew I was raising the next Picasso?" 

Steve looked down at his cast for the first time since Grace had taken her brush to it. It was bright and colorful, but not in the way he had expected. Instead of silly glittery scrawl, Steve was met with a brilliant shimmering rainbow and carefully scripted lettering within the colored bands. _We Love You Uncle Steve! Grace & Danno_

Steve's eyes pricked with tears. Tears for the father he never really had, tears for the look on Danny's face when he watched Grace, tears for the fear on Danny's face just moments before. He blinked rapidly and smiled at Grace. "It's amazing. Thank you so much. Come 'er." He got onto his knees and motioned for her to come over. He wrapped his arms around her as best he could and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "I'll have to frame it when it gets cut off." 

Danny's nose crinkled. "I hate to think of what that thing is going to smell like when you get it off. It's not going to be the normal funk either, not with how you conduct yourself. It'll probably have to be hermetically sealed by a Hazmat team."

Grace's face fell a bit at the thought and Steve put his finger under her chin, lifting her face to look at him. "I won't let them have it." He vowed. "They'll have to seal me up with it." Grace smiled as Danny and Steve exchanged a look. Steve's tone was not lost on Danny. Both men knew that he meant it.

Steve McGarrett was no stranger to making promises and Danny knew Steve never made a promise he didn't fully intend to keep.

The End


End file.
